Challenging How Teachers Are Educated: A Source for Dialogue and Action.

Fox, G. Thomas, Jr.

This report describes the results of three meetings among eight national education organizations (American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, American Educational Research Association, American Federation of Teachers, Association of Teacher Educators, Council of Chief State School Officers, National Association of State Boards of Education, National Education Association, and National School Boards Association) in which 20 challenges to teacher education and staff development were identified. The first part of the report focuses on recommendations, emerging from the meetings, for dealing with these challenges, which are listed and embellished upon. The second part of the report examines practices and proposals for the reform of teacher education and staff development, using the 20 challenges as a common analytical framework. Also included in the second part is a review of comments and analyses expressed by conferees about current teacher education practices along with illustrations of how the 20 challenges can be used for conducting future analysis and for formulating new designs for teacher preparation and development. The report's third section presents guidelines for future discussion about reforms in educating teachers and ideas and guidelines for future conferences. An appendix describes the conferences that identified the 20 challenges, and references are included. (JM)